3. Installing SquirrelMail

3.1 Quick and Dirty install

In order to use SquirrelMail, you should take the following steps.

Download all required software

You can find SquirrelMail package on SquirrelMail site. PHP can be found on PHP site.

Install webserver and PHP (at least 4.1.0).

SquirrelMail needs a webserver with PHP support. Check PHP install manual for information about supported web servers and install procedures.

Some Linux and Unix distributions provide precompiled web server and php packages.

We recommend the following PHP settings:

• register_globals off - a dangerous setting, not needed. We do not release security advisories for issues only exploitable with this setting on. Note that you can easily enable it only for some legacy site that may need it and turn it off globally.
• magic_quotes_{runtime,gpc,sybase} off - SquirrelMail may work with any of these on, but if you experience stray backslashes in your mail or other strange behaviour, it may be advisable to turn them off.
• file_uploads on - needed if your users want to attach files to their mails.
• safe_mode on or off - safe_mode on is only a tiny bint more secure, in the SquirrelMail case. There may be some incompatibilities with some functionality (see Safe mode).

Install IMAP server

It depends on used email system. Email server needs IMAP service that knows used email system layout. If you use Unix with standard sendmail server, you might have to install UW IMAP, Dovecot or other IMAP server, that can use email stored in /var/spool/mail/ directory. If you use Windows, you might have to enable IMAP service that is bundled with your email server. If your email server does not support IMAP, you might have to find some other email server product.

Unpack SquirrelMail package

Unpack the SquirrelMail package in a web-accessible location.

Prepare data and attachment directories

Select a data-dir and attachment dir, outside the webtree (e.g. in /var). The data-dir (for user prefs) should be owned by the user the webserver runs as (e.g. www-data). The attachment dir (for uploading files as attachments) should be file mode 0730 and in the same group as the webserver.

If you use PHP with safe mode enabled, check chapter about safe mode.

Configure SquirrelMail

Run config/conf.pl from the command line. Use the D option to load predefined options for specific IMAP servers, and edit at least the Server Settings and General Options (datadir).

Check your SquirrelMail configuration

Browse to http://example.com/yourwebmaillocation/src/configtest.php to test your configuration for common errors.

Log into SquirrelMail

Browse to http://example.com/yourwebmaillocation/ to log in.

3.2 Installing SquirrelMail on Unix and Linux systems

This chapter covers installation of SquirrelMail on generic Unix or Linux system. It does not cover installation of operating system or tools required to install web server or PHP.

Any version numbers used in examples are specific to the time when this documentation is written. If current version numbers differ, make sure that you are not using old, obsolete or vulnerable software.

Guide uses UW IMAP server as example. This IMAP server can be used in generic email setup when incoming mail is stored in /var/spool/mail directory. If you are planning to use webmail with big number of users or with bigger mailboxes, consider using different IMAP server and redesign entire email system.

Download required software

You will need:

• Apache - http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi
• PHP - http://php.net/downloads.php
• UW IMAP - http://www.washington.edu/imap/
• SquirrelMail - http://squirrelmail.org/download.php

# install -d /usr/local/src/downloads
# cd /usr/local/src/downloads
# wget http://some-apache-mirror-server/apache/httpd/httpd-2.0.54.tar.gz
# wget http://some-php-mirror-server/get/php-4.3.11.tar.bz2/from/this/mirror
# wget ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/mail/imap.tar.Z
# wget http://some-sourceforge-mirror/some-path/squirrelmail-1.4.5.tar.bz2

Unpack and install apache

# cd /usr/local/src
# tar -xzvf /usr/local/src/downloads/httpd-2.0.54.tar.gz
# cd httpd-2.0.54
# ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache --enable-module=so
# make
# make install

Unpack and install php

# cd /usr/local/src
# tar --bzip2 -xvf /usr/local/src/downloads/php-4.3.11.tar.bz2
# cd php-4.3.11
# ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/php \
> --with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache/bin/apxs
# make
# make install

If you configure PHP compilation with --disable-all option, you must add --enable-session and --with-pcre-regex options.

Add PHP support to apache

<IfModule mod_php4.c>
  AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
</IfModule>

Restart apache and check if php is working

/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl graceful

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Unpack and install imap server

Unpack UW IMAP archive.

# cd /usr/local/src
# tar -xzvf /usr/local/src/downloads/imap.tar.Z

Compile UW IMAP

cd /usr/local/src/imap-<someversion>
make port-name EXTRADRIVERS='' SSLTYPE=unix

Replace port-name with name that matches your system. Check Makefile for possible values. If you haven't installed OpenSSL libraries and headers, use SSLTYPE=none instead of SSLTYPE=unix.

Install IMAP server binary

strip imapd/imapd
install -d /usr/local/libexec/
cp imapd/imapd /usr/local/libexec/

Enable IMAP server in inetd.conf

imap2 stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/local/libexec/imapd

Restart inetd

Prepare SquirrelMail directories

# mkdir /usr/local/squirrelmail
# cd /usr/local/squirrelmail
# mkdir data temp
# chgrp nogroup data temp
# chmod 0730 data temp

Unpack SquirrelMail

# cd /usr/local/squirrelmail
# tar --bzip2 -xvf /usr/local/src/downloads/squirrelmail-1.4.5.tar.bz2
# mv squirrelmail-1.4.5 www

Configure SquirrelMail

Start SquirrelMail configuration utility. Configure SquirrelMail with UW preset. Set data and attachment directories.

Configure access to SquirrelMail in Apache

Modify httpd.conf

Alias /squirrelmail /usr/local/squirrelmail/www
<Directory /usr/local/squirrelmail/www>
  Options Indexes
  AllowOverride none
  DirectoryIndex index.php
  Order allow,deny
  allow from all
</Directory>

Log into SquirrelMail

After you add alias to SquirrelMail in apache configuration and restart apache, you should be able to access SquirrelMail by going to http://your-server/squirrelmail.

3.3 Installing SquirrelMail on Windows systems with Apache webserver

SquirrelMailInstallWin32Apache

3.4 Installing SquirrelMail on Windows systems with IIS webserver

SquirrelMailInstallIIS

3.5 Installing SquirrelMail on MaxOS X systems

MacInfoHere

3.6 Prepackaged SquirrelMail installs

If your operating system distribution provides prepackaged SquirrelMail, it might be a good idea to use that. The drawback is that you probably don't have the latest and greatest version. But on the plus side: the whole installation step is managed for you, it integrates better with the rest of your system and you're provided with security updates automatically.

SquirrelMail provides RPM packages. There are two packaging flavors. Standard package that can be used on RedHat 8.x or later. 7.x.noarch.rpm package is designed for RedHat 7.x systems. Main difference between packages - standard package contains standard Apache configuration file with /webmail/ alias in /etc/httpd/conf.d and different package dependencies. There are other SquirrelMail packages created by RedHat, Fedora, SuSE and other RPM distributions.

Debian packages can be downloaded from the Debian website or you can install them with your favorite Debian package manager. For example: apt-get install squirrelmail. If you use Debian stable and SquirrelMail package is a little bit outdated, you might be able to install newer SquirrelMail package from testing or unstable. This is not guaranteed to work though.

FreeBSD includes two different SquirrelMail packages in their ports collection.